By Jason Pan, in Chinese Taipei
The Lamigo Monkeys has taken a 2-0 lead over the defending champions Uni-President Lions in the best-of-seven Taiwan Series of CPBL (Chinese Professional Baseball League) over the weekend.
In Game 2 of the championship finals on Sunday, Lamigo outfielder Chen Guan-ren (“Little Airplane”) came through in the clutch, when with game tied at 4-4 in 9th inning, he ripped a shot to the alley at right-center to knock in the go-ahead run.
Chen galloped to third base for an RBI-triple. Lamigo’s clean-up batter Lin Chih-Sheng (“Big Brother”) would send Chen home with a sacrifice fly for the insurance run.
The was the eventual outcome for the Monkeys team to win 6-4 at the Cheng Ching Lake Stadium in Kaohsiung City. Now they are sitting pretty to go in front on two wins in the Taiwan Series.
In the opener on Saturday, the game was hosted by Uni-President Lions in their home ballpark – Tainan Municipal Stadium in Tainan City.
The Lamigo Monkeys turned on the firepower by hitting two home runs to win 4-1 in Game 1. Clean-up batter Lin (“Big Brother”) had a solo shot in the 3rd frame, and DH Lin Hong-Yu clobbered a 2-run dinger in the 9th to secure the victory.
Lamigo’s American RHP starter Mike Loree, Jr. outdueled his compatriot RHP Jon Leicester who started for the Lions.
Loree threw for 7 1/3 inning, striking out 6 with 3 walks and 3 hits, yielding only one run to get the win.
Lions’ Leicester went 8 innings, gave up 2 runs on 7 hits and a walk on 7 strikeouts, and was tagged with the loss.
Game 3 (on Tuesday) the Taiwan Series is hosted by Lamigo Monkeys at home at the Taoyuan International Stadium in northern Taiwan.
